Hi,
I am not really an SEO Expert. But I decided to do SEO for mywebsites taking it over from someone I hired in the past.
What I found is that Blogs are extremely helpful and always tried to implement that after optimization, Especially if you tag these blogs properly.
I used to outsource backlinks but I do that myself trying to insert hyperlinks back with anchor texts from high PR Pertinent websites, This way I avoid the terrible outcome of Spam branding by so called SEO Experts who would establish back links to your website from any irrelevant and improper website or directory in this universe.
Although my career is very diferent from Software/Internet stuff but I learned a lot through reading and a lot of patience and persistence defenitly pays off.
Hope that is helpful